Guide pour terrarium planté

[ZoeStevens 0]

Based on a previous thread, I've started a brief write-up on how to set up a planted vivarium. It is in English only, my apologies. For anyone with questions or requiring some translations, please feel free to ask, but I am not confident in my abilities to write the whole in (comprehensible) French =)


Find your terrarium
Most of the time, this means an exo-terra vivarium, usually the 18 x 18 x 24 (45-45-60) size. This is a very versatile size, capable of housing 1 or 2 small to medium arboreal geckos (e.g., one giant day gecko, two female crested geckos). They also work well - with a bit of tampering - as temporary housing for young arboreal snakes (e.g., young green tree pythons, Solomon Island tree boas, etc). This guide is going to assume that you are setting up an 18 x 18 x 24 exo-terra for a crested gecko. Adjust to your own needs.
If you are not using an exo-terra, make sure you test the bottom to ensure that it will not leak. You can expect to have 1-2" (2-5 cm) of water in the bottom at any given time.

Start from the bottom up!
Drainage Layer
Assuming you want something tropical (as opposed to a drier environment), you will need to keep your soil and plants moist. Letting the soil dry and then watering it is impractical because pouring water in makes holes in the dirt, and some types of dirt are difficult to re-moisten once they dry (such as coco mulch).
A drainage layer is basically a layer of something solid but porous at the bottom of your tank - under the dirt - that will allow water to collect there and slowly feed it up to the soil above it so the soil stays moist.

• Expanded clay pellets: very light, orangey spheres of porous clay. Rinse them before use. They are not expensive, but can be hard to find. Try your local hydroponics store. This is the ideal method.
  
• Aquarium gravel: very heavy, but easy to find and you can get them in dark brown. Because the pellets are so compact, you will need a fair amount of it.
  
• Smashed clay pots: yep, just the plain, unglazed clay pots and saucers you get at the garden supply store. Put them between two dish towels, and smash them into small pieces with a rolling pin or a hammer. This method if a bit awkward because you get pointy pieces that make it difficult to layer smoothly, but it's cheap, easy, and readily available.
  
• Aquarium filter sponges: I don't really recommend this, but I've done it. If you can find large sponges and lay them side-by-side in a layer on the bottom of the tank, that will act as drainage. Just make sure they are dense enough to get not get squashed by the weight of the dirt.
  

Whatever you use, you want about 2 inches of it.

Something to consider is how the drainage layer will look. If you use a dark brown gravel, it's not an issue. But if you're using clay pellets, smashed pots, blue aquarium sponges etc, it can look very "colorful" and not so natural. To remedy this, you can line the bottom few inches of the outside of the vivarium with a black shelf liner. You can also coat the bottom few inches on the inside of the tank with a black or brown silicone (use GE II 100% pure silicone). Lastly, you can get some black aquarium sponges and create a "border" around the drainage media you use, so when viewed from the outside, you will only see the black sponge under the dirt which is not very visible.

The barrier
You will need to use something to keep the drainage and the dirt layer from mixing together. You can use polyfill (it comes in big rolled-up sheets for a few bucks at Walmart). Just cut out a piece the size of the floor space of your terrarium and place it over the drainage layer.
Plastic needlework mesh or plastic window screen also works. Use as described above. This is my preferred method but I like to use two layers of it.

Soil
The Soil Question can be complexe or simple, depending on your needs. Personally, I like to use coco fibre as a base and mix in some or all of the following:

• Black earth (nice and rich, but clumps together if it's too concentrated)
  
• Chopped sphagnum moss (increase drainage and humidity within the soil)
  
• Orchid bark or coco bark (I would not use this with animals that hunt crickets in case they get a mouthful of it and choke)
  
• Peat moss (good for the plants)
  
• Sand (not really necessary, but some swear by a handful or two thrown into the mix as it increases drainage)
  

At least a few inches of soil is required. I usually just bring it almost to the rim of the bottom ledge of the exo-terra.

Moss layer
This layer is not necessary, but I like to do it with certain tanks. I wouldn't use it in a gecko tank, but I do in snake tanks. It is basically spreading a layer of sphagnum moss across the bottom. It holds humidity and looks nice.
An alternative to this for geckos is using dried oak leaves. Spread them on the soil and your geckos will love it. Plus, they are free: collect them in the fall and boil them before use.

Bioactive soil
I highly recommend bioactive soil. The little bugs and critters in the soil help break down organic waste and will keep the soil aerated. The simplest way to do this, is to go out into the forest (or your garden if you don't use any chemicals on it) and scoop up some soil, and mix it in with the dirt in your tank. The microorganisms and little bugs in the soil will spread through the dirt.

A background
Personally, I hate the styrofoam backgrounds that come with exo-terras. Crickets eat them, jam themselves behind them, and I loathe that squeak of styrofoam-on-glass. I do like a nice background, however, so I use Zoomed Cork Tile Backgrounds. Petsandponds.com will usually special order them for you (last time I checked, the price came to about 8 cents per square inch, and they are even cheaper at reptile expos. I usually cut off the bottom two inches of the tile so it doesn't sitting in the water in the bottom of the tank. Silicone the tile to the back of the tank (before starting to add the dirt, obviously).

Lighting & Plants
Before you can pick out plants, you can decide on your light. Is the tank getting some light from a window? Or just room light? Or are you going to put a fluorescent light fixture over the tank? If you are in a low-light scenario, you will have to limit yourself to low-light plants:

• Pothos - lovely, impossible to kill. Trim regularly.
  
• Zamioculcas Zamiifolia - aka ZZ plant - very nice, sturdy, but gets very big and will eventually need to be transplanted.
  

If you have higher light, you can pick from many other plants such as:

• Snake plant - very sturdy.
  
• Jewel Orchid - tough, and gorgeous, if you can find it.
  
• Bromeliad and air plant - if your humidity is high enough.
  

Maintenance
The easy part is setting it up, the hard part is keeping it going.

• Always have some water sitting in the drainage layer of the tank, but never high enough that the dirt is waterlogged.
  
• Do not use chemical fertilisers. If you have a fresh water aquarium, use the water from your water changes to top up the water. You can also use the water left over when you boil or steam spinach, artichokes, etc. Use monthly or so, depending on the plants you have.
  
• Spot clean feces and urates as you see them.
  
• Spray daily.
  
• Trim your plants as they get too big.
  
• Cork bark tubes make nice decor in this type of set-up, as does manzanita driftwood.
  

[Manu-superiorgeckos 0]

Very nice and helpfull post Zoe! Made it as a Tutorial

[Geneviève08 0]

Super, tu es rapide, vais demander a mon chum de me le traduire hiih, je comprend en grande partie, mais il a des mots que je comprend pas

Ça serai bien si queqlu'un pourrais le traduire en français,

[ZoeStevens 0]

Merci!

If anyone feels ambitious, please feel free to translate it.

[Goulet11 0]

Le meilleur système de drainage est d'après moi le système avec des plaques de filtration sous-fond d'aquarium ou des ''protecteur de néon''. Vous installez vos plaques de filtration sur l'ensemble du sol du vivarium en les surélevants à l'aide de tuyaux de pvc. Sous les plaques vous installer un petit filtreur et un chauffe-eau.
Le chauffe-eau est laisser à la discrétion, mais personnellement je chauffe l'ensemble du vivarium en mettant le chauffe-eau au maximum, ce qui donne une température ambiante de 25° et une humidité de 85%. Si vous n'avez pas de section aquatique, c'est le moment de mettre l'eau, sinon vous pouvez attendre la fin des opérations pour la placée. Par la suite vous mettez un géotextile, suivis de boule d'argiles expansées, suivis d'un autre géotextile et de votre substrat. Mon substrat préféré, 1/3 de mousse de shpaigne bien déchiqueter, 1/3 de copeau d'orchidée , 1/3 de coco expansé.

Avec ce système là, le sol est humide mais jamais détrempé, il s'agit d'un système top-notch pour faire pousser les mousses, les plantes poussent comme de véritables attardées. Je trouve aussi que ça donne une chaleur/humidité '' naturel '', dans le sens que la chaleur est procurée par l'évaporation de l'eau.

Pour ce qui est du remplissage d'eau par la suite, si vous avez une section aquatique il n'y a pas de problème. Sinon, faite comme moi et placer un tuyaux dans l'entrée d'air des plaques sous-fond qui remonte jusqu'en au de votre vivarium ( genre collé au grillage, aucun accès aux animaux ). Vous mettez un entonnoir dedans et remplissez de nouveaux.

Les possibilités de faire une chute d'eau, rivière et tout le tralala sont multiple avec ce système là.

[IIIPowerIII 0]

En gros un terrarium planté est recommander pour un reptile adulte? Genre un crested de 4-5 mois est trop jeune?

[Goulet11 0]

Tu peux mettre un animal dans vivarium planté n'importe quand. Je laissais mes bébé rampholéon dans le même vivarium planté EXTRÊME, le même vivarium où ils avaient été pondu.

[ZoeStevens 0]

IIIPowerIII a écrit:

En gros un terrarium planté est recommander pour un reptile adulte? Genre un crested de 4-5 mois est trop jeune?

Pas necessairement. Un terra "sterile" (essui-touts, plantes en plastiques, etc) est parfaitement correcte. Je recommende un terrarium "sterile" pour les jeunes animaux (les bebes peuvent manger une bouche pleine de terre en chassant les criquets), les animaux qui ne sont pas en bonne sante et les nouveaux animaux (c'est plus facile d'observer leurs movements, leurs selles, etc). A partier de 14-15 grams, un crested est assez grand pour aller dans un terra planté.